Man rescued after tree pins him in Maltby house
Published 8:58 am Tuesday, December 14, 2010
MALTBY — Firefighters this morning rescued a man who was trapped when winds knocked a tree into his Maltby home.
Heavy winds hit south Snohomish County early this morning. At least two homes were hit by falling trees and there were multiple reports of downed power lines.
Fire crews in District 7 received a call just before 1 a.m. that a man was trapped in his home by a downed tree. One crew had to cut and remove a tree that was blocking their route to the home, located in the 9100 block of 222nd Street SE.
The man had freed his legs by the time crews arrived but he was still unable to move, fire district spokeswoman Autumn Waite said.
Firefighters helped the man out of his bedroom. The room was filled with tree debris.
The man was not injured and his family had arrived to care for him. His dog also wasn’t hurt.
During the next 30 minutes, firefighters in the area were called to a dozen more calls, the majority involving downed trees or power lines.
Crews were summoned to a home in the 2500 block of Stafford Way, where a tree fell into a bathroom. The occupants were able to get out safely and no one was hurt.
The National Weather Service in Seattle said the winds were part of a fast-moving cold front that shot through the region Tuesday morning. Wind gusts of 35 mph to 50 mph were reported around Puget Sound.
Gusts of 66 mph hit the Three Lakes area east of Snohomish this morning, according to the Snohomish County PUD.
“The gusts were sudden and strong enough, given the shallow root structure of the trees in the area and the recent heavy rain and wet soils, to result in many trees down” and large-scale power outages, the weather service reported.
About 3,500 homes in Snohomish County were without power, primarily in south Snohomish County. Power outages also were reported in Lake Stevens and some neighborhoods east of Snohomish. Crews were hoping to have the lights back on in those homes by this afternoon, a spokesman said.
